Research

A wide array of diverse terrestrial and marine environments are within a 10-mile radius of our campus (24º50’40”N, 76º20’70”W)

CEI’s research activity, from the fall 2017, centers on four themes addressing the structure and function of tropical marine island ecosystems and linking these to the sustainability objectives of the wider CEIS community and our existing research strengths. The themes are:

Spatial ecology – understanding the movement and distribution of mobile organisms in relation to functional habitat.

Owing to our location field work is a focus of activity; researchers can access all ecosystem zones, from the island and its shoreline lagoon to the coral forereef and the deep sea. Field work is supported by on-site facilities of extensive wet and dry laboratories with new facilities coming on line.

Each semester, students and teachers from The Island School work side-by-side with staff at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, visiting graduate students, and visiting scientists to address focused research questions related to larger programmatic themes. In this way, primary research quickly becomes application-based experiential education that has direct benefits to students and as well as the local community and the environment.

Click the links below to learn more about the research areas we have focused on in the past and the current projects going on at the Cape Eleuthera Institute: